Herbivory can have many effects on plant fitness, including altering plant-pollinator interactions and sexual reproduction in angiosperms. Pollinator-mediated interactions may be impacted when herbivores alter plant traits, such as floral display size, that can influence pollinator visitation rates, and, ultimately, the reproductive component of plant fitness. Here I describe an investigation into the indirect effects of feeding by beetles released as a biological control agent, Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla, on plant-pollinator interactions and reproductive output in the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria L. (purple loosestrife). During the summer of 2011, three treatments (low, ambient and mechanical herbivory) were applied to 105 plants during the pre-flowering period of growth. At the onset of flowering, a series of pollinator observations were conducted over the course of approximately 1.5 weeks. Several aspects of floral display were affected by the herbivory treatments, including increased inflorescence and flower production in the ambient and mechanical herbivory treatments, relative to the low herbivory treatment. Treatment type did not have a significant effect on the number of pollinator foraging bouts, but had marginally significant effects on the number of flowers probed per pollinator foraging bout and per 30-minutes. Moreover, treatment had a significant effect on the number of switches among the inflorescences on a single plant. I discuss the possibility that the differences in pollinator visitation were mediated by differences in the architecture and the size of floral display. There were no detectable differences in fruit or seed production (i.e., female fitness) among treatments. However, as I discuss, differences in pollinator visitation may affect other unmeasured aspects of fitness, such as the level of inbreeding or the number of seeds sired through male function.

[pt] Esta tese tem por objetivo investigar, desde um ponto de vista filosófico, a vida política dos animais outros que humanos no contexto do Antropoceno. Entre diversas configurações, a errância, o confinamento, a experimentação e a extinção são privilegiadas como verdadeiras situações conceituais, cuja análise e problematização requerem a abordagem conjunta da filosofia com diferentes discursos, como a etologia, a biologia, a antropologia, a história e a literatura. O primeiro passo consiste em uma exploração do lugar nos animais na pólis a partir da confrontação de ideias clássicas e contemporâneas sobre política; em seguida passa-se a uma análise do zoológico tomado como modelo da política humana, oferecendo-se, como alternativa, feições possíveis de uma política animal a partir dos diversos sentidos do conceito de brincadeira; o terceiro momento examina experimentações multiespecíficas no âmbito das artes, com foco na literatura, e no de práticas científicas, observando seus diferentes modos de mundificação; finalmente, procede-se à elaboração de uma noção de extinção não tanto como um fato, mas como acontecimento, diante do qual o cultivo imaginativo de narrativas de luto e as experiências de continuidade são necessários. Por este percurso, conclui-se que, ainda que acossados por todos os lados, os animais outros que humanos vivem e oferecem possibilidades cosmopolíticas diante das quais a humanidade compreendida como exceção ontológica se evidencia como potência apolítica. / [en] The present thesis aims to investigate, from a philosophical standpoint, the political life of other-than-human animals in the context of the Anthropocene. Amid several configurations, errancy, confinement, experimentation and extinction are privileged as actual conceptual situations, the analysis and problematization of which require a combined approach between philosophy and other discourses, such as ethology, biology, anthropology, history and literature. The first step consists of an exploration of the animal’s place in the polis taking as a starting point a confrontation between classic and contemporary ideas regarding politics; following that, an analysis of the zoo viewed as a model of human politics, to which are offered, as alternatives, possible features of an animal politics taking as a starting point the several meanings of the concept of play; the third section examines multispecies experiments in the realm of the arts, especially literature, and in the realm of scientific practices, noting different modes of worlding respective to each; lastly, we proceed to the elaboration of a notion of extinction, not so much as a fact but as a event in the face of which the imaginative cultivation of grief narratives and experiences of continuity is necessary. So reasoning, we conclude that, although accosted on all sides, other-than-human animals live and offer cosmopolitical possibilities in the face of which humanity, understood as ontological exception, proves itself to be an apolitical power.

Esta tese tem como objetivo contar as histórias de peregrinações (Ingold, 2011) vividas ao acompanhar as cabritas que partem da comunidade quilombola de Palmas, localizada na zona rural do município de Bagé, fronteira sul e oeste do Rio Grande do Sul, e vão de caminhão até um aviário em Alvorada, região metropolitana de Porto Alegre, onde são vendidas para casas de religiões de matriz africana para participarem de rituais de abate sacralizado. Nesse trajeto, são consideradas as cabritas, os humanos que com elas se relacionam e as condições ambientais de movimentação e de convívio com as mesmas durante a pesquisa etnográfica (Despret, 2011). As relações entre humanos e animais serão abordadas a partir da noção de etnografia multiespécies (Kirksey e Helmreich, 2010), tensionando o antropocentrismo ao dar ênfase na transespecificidade (Sá, 2013) das implicações mútuas entre as definições de humanos e não-humanos. A pesquisa foi impulsionada pelas controvérsias surgidas a partir da discussão do Projeto de Lei 21/2015, proposto na Assembleia Legislativa do rio Grande do Sul pela deputada evangélica e ativista da proteção animal Regina Becker Fortunatti, que visava proibir o abate sacralizado de animais nas casas de religiões de matriz africana do Rio Grande do Sul O que era para ser um estudo sobre os rituais de iniciação no Batuque (Dos Anjos, 2001) e a necessidade de os animais sacralizados nesses eventos terem uma “vida boa”, “imaculada”, em contrapartida com as acusações de “barbárie” e “assassinos” contra o pessoal de religião, acabou por se ampliar em uma descrição de como terreiros urbanos e quilombos rurais compartilham mundos na resistência ao racismo, às forças de aniquilação da diferença do Estado brasileiro e seus tentáculos capitalistas. No rastro das cabras, nas relações entre o quilombo de Palmas e os terreiros da região de Porto Alegre, eclode um cosmo de seres vivendo vidas em aliança, apontando para possibilidades profícuas de multiplicação dos agentes e vozes nos estudos de Etnologia Afro-brasileira. O intercâmbio de animais, ervas, mel, grãos e os cuidados mútuos com essas culturas esboçam coexistências compartilhadas por meio de trilhas que surgem de experiências negras corporificadas nos movimentos constantes de suas epistemes peregrinas. / This PhD thesis aims to tell the stories of peregrinations (Ingold, 2011) lived by accompanying the goats that depart from the quilombola community of Palmas, located in the rural area of the municipality of Bagé, south and west border of Rio Grande do Sul, as they go by truck to an aviary in Alvorada, metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, where they are sold to houses of afro-brazilian religions to participate in rituals of sacred slaughter. In this path, the goats are considered, as well as the humans that relate to them and the environmental conditions of movement and conviviality during the ethnographic research (Despret, 2011). Relationships between humans and animals will be approached from the notion of multispecies ethnography (Kirksey and Helmreich, 2010), stressing anthropocentrism by emphasizing the transespecificity (Sá, 2013) of the mutual implications between definitions of humans and nonhumans. The research was fueled by controversies arising from the discussion of the Bill Project 21/2015, by evangelical and animal rights activist Regina Becker Fortunatti, which aimed to prohibit the sacrificial slaughter of animals in the houses of afro-brazilian religions in Rio Grande do Sul What was meant to be a study of initiation rituals in Batuque (Dos Anjos, 2001) and the need for sacred animals in these events to have a “good”, "immaculate life", in contrast to the accusations of "barbarism" and "murderers" against religion personnel, has been expanded in a description of how urban terreiros and rural quilombos share worlds in resistance to racism, to the annihilation forces of the difference managed by the Brazilian state and its capitalist tentacles. In the trail of the goats, in the relationship between the Palmas quilombo and the terreiros located in the Porto Alegre region, emerges a cosmos of beings living lives in alliance, pointing to proficuous possibilities for the multiplicity of agents and voices in the studies of Afro-Brazilian Ethnology. The interchange of animals, herbs, honey, grains and mutual care with these cultures sketches coexistences that are shared by the trails, which arise from black experiences embodied in the constant movement of their peregrine epistemes.

Esta tese tem como objetivo contar as histórias de peregrinações (Ingold, 2011) vividas ao acompanhar as cabritas que partem da comunidade quilombola de Palmas, localizada na zona rural do município de Bagé, fronteira sul e oeste do Rio Grande do Sul, e vão de caminhão até um aviário em Alvorada, região metropolitana de Porto Alegre, onde são vendidas para casas de religiões de matriz africana para participarem de rituais de abate sacralizado. Nesse trajeto, são consideradas as cabritas, os humanos que com elas se relacionam e as condições ambientais de movimentação e de convívio com as mesmas durante a pesquisa etnográfica (Despret, 2011). As relações entre humanos e animais serão abordadas a partir da noção de etnografia multiespécies (Kirksey e Helmreich, 2010), tensionando o antropocentrismo ao dar ênfase na transespecificidade (Sá, 2013) das implicações mútuas entre as definições de humanos e não-humanos. A pesquisa foi impulsionada pelas controvérsias surgidas a partir da discussão do Projeto de Lei 21/2015, proposto na Assembleia Legislativa do rio Grande do Sul pela deputada evangélica e ativista da proteção animal Regina Becker Fortunatti, que visava proibir o abate sacralizado de animais nas casas de religiões de matriz africana do Rio Grande do Sul O que era para ser um estudo sobre os rituais de iniciação no Batuque (Dos Anjos, 2001) e a necessidade de os animais sacralizados nesses eventos terem uma “vida boa”, “imaculada”, em contrapartida com as acusações de “barbárie” e “assassinos” contra o pessoal de religião, acabou por se ampliar em uma descrição de como terreiros urbanos e quilombos rurais compartilham mundos na resistência ao racismo, às forças de aniquilação da diferença do Estado brasileiro e seus tentáculos capitalistas. No rastro das cabras, nas relações entre o quilombo de Palmas e os terreiros da região de Porto Alegre, eclode um cosmo de seres vivendo vidas em aliança, apontando para possibilidades profícuas de multiplicação dos agentes e vozes nos estudos de Etnologia Afro-brasileira. O intercâmbio de animais, ervas, mel, grãos e os cuidados mútuos com essas culturas esboçam coexistências compartilhadas por meio de trilhas que surgem de experiências negras corporificadas nos movimentos constantes de suas epistemes peregrinas. / This PhD thesis aims to tell the stories of peregrinations (Ingold, 2011) lived by accompanying the goats that depart from the quilombola community of Palmas, located in the rural area of the municipality of Bagé, south and west border of Rio Grande do Sul, as they go by truck to an aviary in Alvorada, metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, where they are sold to houses of afro-brazilian religions to participate in rituals of sacred slaughter. In this path, the goats are considered, as well as the humans that relate to them and the environmental conditions of movement and conviviality during the ethnographic research (Despret, 2011). Relationships between humans and animals will be approached from the notion of multispecies ethnography (Kirksey and Helmreich, 2010), stressing anthropocentrism by emphasizing the transespecificity (Sá, 2013) of the mutual implications between definitions of humans and nonhumans. The research was fueled by controversies arising from the discussion of the Bill Project 21/2015, by evangelical and animal rights activist Regina Becker Fortunatti, which aimed to prohibit the sacrificial slaughter of animals in the houses of afro-brazilian religions in Rio Grande do Sul What was meant to be a study of initiation rituals in Batuque (Dos Anjos, 2001) and the need for sacred animals in these events to have a “good”, "immaculate life", in contrast to the accusations of "barbarism" and "murderers" against religion personnel, has been expanded in a description of how urban terreiros and rural quilombos share worlds in resistance to racism, to the annihilation forces of the difference managed by the Brazilian state and its capitalist tentacles. In the trail of the goats, in the relationship between the Palmas quilombo and the terreiros located in the Porto Alegre region, emerges a cosmos of beings living lives in alliance, pointing to proficuous possibilities for the multiplicity of agents and voices in the studies of Afro-Brazilian Ethnology. The interchange of animals, herbs, honey, grains and mutual care with these cultures sketches coexistences that are shared by the trails, which arise from black experiences embodied in the constant movement of their peregrine epistemes.

Este trabalho objetivou estudar e descrever as relações multiespécies que contribuem para que se mantenha a existência da mandioca junto aos Pataxó no entorno do Monte Pascoal, no Sul da Bahia, num contexto de transformação e \"modernização\" da agricultura local. Ele foi inspirado na ideia de que a diversificação e manutenção da mandioca se dá dentro de contextos históricos de seu envolvimento contínuo com diversos seres e coisas, ou seja, mediante suas ações ambientalmente situadas. A hipótese central levantada é que a diversidade de mandiocas existentes ocorre através de um conjunto de relações sócio-ecológicas no qual os humanos são parte importante. Através da metodologia proposta pela etnografia multiespécie foram apresentadas primeiramente cinco histórias no intuito de mostrar como a mandioca está envolvida em relações múltiplas com os Pataxó e outros seres, que envolvem afetos, memórias, conhecimentos, práticas, política, nas quais ela se destaca como uma espécie companheira com a qual se tem coevoluido. A partir dessas histórias, foram indicadas e descritas as temporalidade de seu modo de vida e as práticas que se destacaram como importantes na existência e permanência dessa planta na região, evidenciando as assembleias que se formaram e suas consequências na vida da mandioca e de seus companheiros Pataxó. O estudo aponta para a resiliência na diversidade de mandioca ao longo do tempo na região, porém em menor quantidade e qualidade, evidenciando uma precarização de determinadas relações, as quais passam a demandar atenção ao se pensar na elaboração de estratégias de conservação da agrobiodiversidade junto com os Pataxó no Monte Pascoal. / This work aimed to study and describe the multi-species relationships that contribute to maintain the existence of cassava with the Pataxó surrounding the Monte Pascoal, in Southern Bahia, in a context of transformation and \"upgrading\" of local agriculture. It was inspired by the idea that diversification and maintenance of cassava takes place within historical contexts of their continuing involvement with various beings and things, that is, through its environmentally situated actions. The central hypothesis is that the diversity of cassava can not be seen only as genetic resources (which suffer natural selection) not only as the result of human management (artificial selection and the symbolic constructions), but as a set of relationships socio- ecological in which humans are an important part. Through the methodology proposed by the multispecies ethnography were presented five stories in order to show how cassava is involved in multiple relationships with the Pataxó and other beings, involving emotions, memories, knowledge, practices, politics, in which it stands as a specie partner with who it has co-evolved. From these stories was demonstrated and described the temporality of their way of life and practices that stood out as important in the existence and permanence of this plant in the region, highlighting the meetings that formed and its consequences in cassava life and his companions Pataxó. The study points to the resilience in cassava diversity over time in the region, but in smaller quantities and quality, showing a precariousness of certain relationships, which begin to demand attention when thinking about the development of the agro-biodiversity conservation strategies with Pataxó in Monte Pascoal.

Entre as temporalidades de diferentes processos locais, este estudo etnográfico aprofunda-se em entender como esses diferentes ritmos relacionam-se e modulam as atividades de pescadores e de outros habitantes (humanos e não-humanos) na vila do Pontal do Leste - Ilha do Cardoso, Cananeia - SP. Relações essas sempre em processo de co-constituição, co-respondencia, co-evolução entre humanos e não-humanos, nunca formados e preexistentes de antemão. As percepções desses processos são fundamentais para o entendimento do comportamento de alguns animais não-humanos e plantas, das condições de tempo, da geomorfologia insular e da ecologia eólico-hídrica local, resultando em caracterizações sensíveis, que serão desdobradas nessa etnografia. Portanto, nessa malha de relações composta por paisagens multiespécies, onde diversas linhas de movimentos são traçadas por seres e processos, o intuito deste estudo foi descrever como essas linhas encontram-se e contaminam-se. E, acima de tudo, como esses encontros são traduzidos pelos habitantes e visitantes da vila. / Among the temporalities of different local processes, this ethnographic study deepens in understanding how these different rhythms relate and modulate the activities of fishermen and other inhabitants (human and non-human) in the village of Pontal do Leste - Cardoso Island, Cananeia - SP. These relations are always in the process of co-constitution, coresponse, co-evolution between humans and nonhumans never formed and preexisting inadvance. The perceptions of these processes are fundamental to the understanding of the behavior of some non-human animals and plants, of the weather conditions, insular geomorphology and local wind-hydric ecology, resulting in sensitive characterizations that will be unfolded in this ethnography. Therefore, in this meshwork of relationships composed of multispecies landscapes, where several lines of movement are traced by beings and processes, the purpose of this study was to describe how these lines meet and become contaminated. And, above all, how these meetings are translated by the inhabitants and visitors of the village.

Herbivory can have many effects on plant fitness, including altering plant-pollinator interactions and sexual reproduction in angiosperms. Pollinator-mediated interactions may be impacted when herbivores alter plant traits, such as floral display size, that can influence pollinator visitation rates, and, ultimately, the reproductive component of plant fitness. Here I describe an investigation into the indirect effects of feeding by beetles released as a biological control agent, Galerucella calmariensis and G. pusilla, on plant-pollinator interactions and reproductive output in the invasive plant Lythrum salicaria L. (purple loosestrife). During the summer of 2011, three treatments (low, ambient and mechanical herbivory) were applied to 105 plants during the pre-flowering period of growth. At the onset of flowering, a series of pollinator observations were conducted over the course of approximately 1.5 weeks. Several aspects of floral display were affected by the herbivory treatments, including increased inflorescence and flower production in the ambient and mechanical herbivory treatments, relative to the low herbivory treatment. Treatment type did not have a significant effect on the number of pollinator foraging bouts, but had marginally significant effects on the number of flowers probed per pollinator foraging bout and per 30-minutes. Moreover, treatment had a significant effect on the number of switches among the inflorescences on a single plant. I discuss the possibility that the differences in pollinator visitation were mediated by differences in the architecture and the size of floral display. There were no detectable differences in fruit or seed production (i.e., female fitness) among treatments. However, as I discuss, differences in pollinator visitation may affect other unmeasured aspects of fitness, such as the level of inbreeding or the number of seeds sired through male function.

In this project, I speculate about a parallel world where a parliament chair for more-than-humans to ‘speak up’ exists within a human fabricated democratic construct. Along the narrative, we are to notice the grammar of other beings and to relearn the ethic of respect and interdependency by ‘deep listening’ to our often ‘quiet’ neighbors on this planet. The intention is to take a closer look at the actant nature of other-than-human beings, at the political of them through exploring the tension between power and empathy. The project adopts voting cards as a probing tool for humans’ involvement in the scenario. It explores the balance between chairs’ power connotation and the materiality of paper as well as the emotional character of sounds. It is an invitation of entering an alternative reality where imagination and affection towards a more inclusive and attentive relation with other-than-humans could be envisioned and questioned.

Scholars studying memory, literary tourism, and Byron all note the cooperation between author and audience at work in memorials--be it in terms of speech and response, hospitality and reception, or memory and forgetting. None, however, address the environment at Newstead as an agentic being involved with Byron's memorial legacy. Byron acknowledged multispecies beings as important actors in his eventual legacy. Through some of his early poems, we see the land under and around Newstead Abbey, as well as its nonhuman life, exercising agency and affecting Byron's memory. I limit my analysis to Byron's early poetry partly to trace how a younger, more earnest Byron relied on Romantic memory-building culture and partly to focus on the effects that Newstead had on Byron's legacy. My primary objects of study are the following poems: "On Leaving Newstead Abbey" (composed 1803), "To an Oak in the Garden of Newstead Abbey" (1807), "Elegy on Newstead Abbey" (1807), and "Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog" (1808). Each of these addresses the Byrons' ancestral estate as an ecology which Byron imbued with poetic purpose, and the core location of his youthful legacy-building project. I address the poems in chronological order to show how Byron recruits and unites different voices to support his legacy. Focusing on Newstead in this sense sheds light on any number of related phenomena pertaining to Byronism, especially monuments, Byron's home, and other aspects of material culture that honored Byron's posthumous legacy. Given that, within years of writing these four poems, Byron would become known worldwide as the quintessential Romantic poet, his ancestral home, like other things and spaces that came to stand in for him, offers a highly useful and arguably paradigmatic case study. That it is not just a monument, but a composite being acting in and made up of literal and memorial ecosystems, suggests a kind of memorial agency or voice emerging from Newstead. This influence supports what Byron poetically speaks about and into Newstead and expands our notion of what effective memorials entail, effectively advocating for more and better study of environmental actors within reception studies.

This paper gives critical attention to the nature versus caution porch conversation in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, arguing that this is a legitimate addition to the anthropological discussion of nature versus culture. Addressing literary critics as well as scholars of the environmental humanities and of multispecies studies, I argue that Hurston's nature-caution discussion is a helpful epistemology which Hurston employs throughout her novel to suggest a single, unified way of understanding the human and nonhuman.